Confrontation between Albany County comptroller opponents gets heated

Albany City Auditor, Susan Rizzo, left, and City TreasurerÊDarius Shahinfar, right, listen as Mayor Kathy Sheehan presents her 2018 budget proposal during a presentation at City Hall on Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union) less

Albany City Auditor, Susan Rizzo, left, and City TreasurerÊDarius Shahinfar, right, listen as Mayor Kathy Sheehan presents her 2018 budget proposal during a presentation at City Hall on Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, ... more

Albany City Auditor, Susan Rizzo, left, and City TreasurerÊDarius Shahinfar, right, listen as Mayor Kathy Sheehan presents her 2018 budget proposal during a presentation at City Hall on Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union) less

Albany City Auditor, Susan Rizzo, left, and City TreasurerÊDarius Shahinfar, right, listen as Mayor Kathy Sheehan presents her 2018 budget proposal during a presentation at City Hall on Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, ... more

ALBANY - Outside City Hall, city Auditor Sue Rizzo took to a podium to lambaste the administration and her rival in next month’s Democratic primary for Albany County comptroller, claiming financial mismanagement and obstruction.

“The instances where I uncovered the greatest financial impact were the city’s risk-free investments and in irresponsible borrowing practices,” said Rizzo, who is running against city Treasurer Darius Shahinfar. “For years, the city’s treasurer has only invested in money market accounts, or kept excessive funds idle in the city’s checking account.”

What began as a news conference with Rizzo to “draw attention to the pattern of fiscal mismanagement at City Hall” through her completed audits, devolved into a spat between Shahinfar and Rizzo inside the city Treasurer’s Office on Thursday.

Rizzo and a campaign operative followed reporters seeking a response to Rizzo’s allegations into Shahinfar’s office after the news conference. She refused to leave when asked.

“This is not for you, Sue,” Shahinfar said.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m the chief city auditor, and I think I’m allowed to hear what you have to say,” Rizzo responded.

When Rizzo stood her ground and refused requests by Shahinfar to leave his office, Shahinfar left and went to Mayor Kathy Sheehan’s office.

The heated interaction came just hours before the two Democratic foes attended a community forum hosted by the Albany chapter of the NAACP at 200 S. Pearl St., where Rizzo and Shahinfar later sat side-by-side fielding questions about the comptroller's position in front of roughly 50 people.

The questions ranged from basics about the role of county comptroller — Shahinfar describes as "the keeper of the coin" — to how they could increase racial diversity in hiring practices and what role the comptroller could play in assessing local law enforcement.

While Shahinfar suggested as county comptroller he could audit jail operations, Rizzo was asked to audit the Albany Police Department while city auditor - something she said she'd add to the list.

The candidates' back-and-forth at the forum was an extension from earlier Thursday, when Rizzo accused city officials of obstructing her audit inquiries.

Shahinfar dismissed her allegations.

“We communicate through email right now, and I’ve asked her do that because I think it’s most appropriate at this point and time,” he said. “We have an ongoing political campaign, and she’s auditing in a way that’s really political, quite frankly.”

While Rizzo did not tout Thursday afternoon’s news conference as part of her campaign for comptroller, her highlighting of the audits she’s done since taking office in 2018 comes just shy of a month from the June 25 primary.

“It has nothing to do with politics. I do my job as the auditor,” she said. “Everybody got really defensive when I started asking questions.”

Rizzo’s criticism is reminiscent of former Common Councilmember Frank Commisso Jr., who took to City Hall steps alleging much the same in 2017 when he ran for mayor against Sheehan. Specifically, he used the state-funded PFM Group report to argue Albany was headed in the wrong direction with an expected increased deficit.

The city auditor’s office has completed six audits since the beginning of 2018, and most recently sought a response from the administration on a seventh audit criticizing Shahinfar for borrowing $26 million to buy the city’s streetlights when the sale isn’t completed. The Common Council approved borrowing up to $29.3 million for the purchase and retrofit in December last year.

In January, Albany borrowed the money needed to buy its over 10,000 streetlights from National Grid and upgrade them to energy efficient lighting, but the city is waiting for the utility company’s board to approve the sale.

Rizzo said the city has accrued $244,833 in interest from the bond, while still having to pay National Grid over $230,000 monthly for the lights.

Shahinfar said the city bonded earlier because of concern over interest rates rising and uncertainty in when the sale would be finalized. He stood by that decision Thursday.

“If we’d waited and interest rates had gone up, I’d be blamed for waiting and interest rates going up and costing the city money,” he said.

Albany officials late Wednesday afternoon posted a lengthy response to the latest audit, explaining the process and reasoning behind the timing, and questioning the Rizzo's professional conduct.

“After reviewing several audits conducted by the Office of Audit and Control, one may reasonably conclude that said examinations were an attempt to criticize the Office of the Treasurer through the inspection of collateral functions while veiled under the cloak of impartiality,” the response reads.

The response cites sections of U.S. Government Auditing Standards, including removal of an auditor from a case when their interests pose a threat to independence.

Rizzo said her deputy Ransom Moore was the one who took the lead on the streetlight bonding audit.

Sheehan’s chief of staff Brian Shea expressed frustration responding to Rizzo, who he said hasn’t had any formal audit training and isn’t familiar with government auditing standards.

“We will continue to urge the city auditor to seek the proper training as her predecessor did so that she can effectively do the job the people of Albany pay her to do,” he said.